


Drawing the line

by blue_nebulae



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Difficult Decisions, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Gendry eventually stops being an idiot, Gendry is an idiot, Gendrya forever, Light Angst, Love, Not Beta Read, POV Alternating, The end up together, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 01:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29627340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_nebulae/pseuds/blue_nebulae
Summary: Maybe it was time to stop guessing, stop hoping, stop trying and stop acting. She’d done everything she could to show, to make him notice. Everything but actually putting her feelings into actual words, because she’d never been good with words, she was a person that showed things through actions. She had poured and dripped all the love she had for him into actions, into everything she did for him.It made a difference, at least in her mind but apparently it didn’t for him. It was not enough.It was time to draw the line.
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters
Comments: 15
Kudos: 76





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello.
> 
> I'm back.
> 
> I know i have unfinished projects but i'm working on them, slowly but doing it. 
> 
> For now, I have this for you. Please, enjoy.

She sighed as she sat down on her bed, hair dripping after a shower that marked the end of a tiring and long day.

It had been eight years and she had finally had it, she was done.

Eight years since they’d met and… nothing.

She’d been sixteen at first, so nothing could happen and at the time she didn’t have the sort of feelings she had for him now. She couldn’t exactly pinpoint when it changed for her, she only knew that her feelings changed and were not only the sort of things you feel for a friend, they were deeper and stronger and… unreciprocated.

She wasn’t expecting a love confession nor him to propose marriage, but a recognition of her feelings would be appreciated. Even if it was for him to say he didn’t feel the same, he’d never feel the same and that he didn’t love her, that for him she’d always be his tiny best friend Arya, the girl he seemed to cherish only as that… a friend.

All the guessing was leaving her broken.

Thinking, hoping that at some point he’d love her back, or realize he’d loved her all along.

She needed to stop hoping that the affection he showed her was more than a simple friendship, that the fact that someone as shy and wary of social interaction like Gendry considered her someone important in his life could be an open door to some sort of fairy tale ending.

Sometimes friendship was just that and she needed to stop hoping for more.

This wasn’t healthy, this wasn’t living. It was a constant agony and she was exhausted.

She lied down, looking at the ceiling as a it was apparent her body was exhausted from it all. She bit her lip as she thought what she was about to decide. She wasn’t a quitter, she’d never given up on anything before, especially something as important as this. Few weeks ago she’d dismissed the thought immediately, weeks ago she’d been content to keep on hoping and living like thing.

But now…

She closed her eyes and sighed once more.

Maybe it was time to stop guessing, stop hoping, stop trying and stop acting. She’d done everything she could to show, to make him notice. Everything but actually putting her feelings into actual words, because she’d never been good with words, she was a person that showed things through actions. She had poured and dripped all the love she had for him into actions, into everything she did for him.

It made a difference, at least in her mind but apparently it didn’t for him. It was not enough.

She was always there for him, and she could be there for him still but she needed to draw a line.

She didn’t know how to feel now, sad? Angry? She couldn’t be angry, she couldn’t make him, force him, to love her. Feelings don’t work that way; it wasn’t his fault she had these strong feelings for him that had gone unnoticed. One couldn’t force something that wasn’t there, it was obvious for her now.

She sat up again and ran a hand through her hair. Perhaps she should cut it, as a reminder of change. It was long now, longer than it had ever been. He’d once mentioned it looked good on her, a reason why she decided to keep letting it grow. It went beyond her waist now, always braided, or in a bun when she danced. A hard contrast to how it was when they met, a pixie style haircut she preferred during her teenage years when she rebelled against the pristine looks of ballerinas were always associated with.

You learn wearing a wig for shows, under the harsh and heavy lights, is just as bad, if not worse, than having long hair. She learnt that the hard way.

So maybe she should cut her hair. Not as short, but do something to it. The more she thought about it the clearer it was that she should indeed do something, about it all.

It was becoming so obvious now that there was a fine line between loving someone and wasting your time. It was clear as day she’d fallen over that line a long time ago, on the losing side of it. She had wasted years of her life waiting for him, waiting for something that wasn’t going to happen. Waiting for life to be a fairy tale of princess and knights falling in love and living happily ever after.

It was time to draw the line and to not cross it, to not cross to the losing side. Yes, it was definitely time. She would treat him just like she treated everyone else. No more special treatment, no more going on and beyond trying to show him her love. It was time to go on with her life.

She was done wasting her life away. She was young, she could find love eventually even when now nobody seemed as perfect for her like Gendry did. But if she could put her feelings on track, she could find someone. Perhaps she should accept Ned Dayne’s invitation for coffee one of these days, maybe she should accept Jaqen if he asks her out again. She would never be as desperate to accept Elmar Frey’s offer, but there were other guys who seemed to notice her.

It was time to give them a change instead of hoping for the one that will never come.

Her mind was made up, decision taken.

It didn’t feel good; it was like mourning something you never had. At one point she’d thought she would feel better once her mind was set, but perhaps it was something that would take time. She shook her head, feeling better or worse, it was the right choice and she knew it.

She would need to put some distance for a while, until she could stop feelng like this and could only be his friend. It was going to be hard but it would be better than keep on living like this, this limbo of unreciprocated feelings.

Yes, this was the right choice she needed to take in her life.

With that last thought she stood up to turn the lights off and finally went to bed.


	2. Chapter 2

Something was off yet he couldn’t put his finger on it, but something was most definitely off with Arya. He looked down and sighed, it was bothering him, not being able to identify what was going on. The more he thinks about it, the further away the answer seems to fly.

He looked up and saw her talking to someone, to Ned fucking Dayne. He felt a frown start pulling on his face and tried to push it down, he had no reason to frown at them. She was friends with that guy and she had run into him at HotPie's bakery.

She’d shown up to HotPie’s bakery as she always did, 7.15am sharp, ordered her venti coffee, black, and a croissant or a crumpet and she'd always order for him when he was running late, knowing exactly what he'd like which usually consisted on an cappuccino and some kind of scone. Most days they usually ran into each other there before he went to the shop and she went to the dance studio to practice, rehearse or teach, depending on the day.

He didn’t know what kind of day it was for her, she hadn’t told him…

She had barely acknowledged him today. Usually she would greet him with a smile and they would talk, even when they texted constantly but now she rarely texted, mostly just answered him with something short or to say she was busy. He hadn’t walked her to the studio in days, she hasn’t come by the shop in weeks.

He wanted to show the last thing he was working on, needed her opinion but she hasn’t shown up.

They had barely spoken these past few weeks. Arya had claimed to be busy or tired whenever he called or texted. She answered, but it was short and cold towards him.

The few times he’d seen her she had been on the run usually at the bakery, just a small wave and him telling her to call him later, she never did.

She’d pulled away.

HotPie was talking to him and he hadn’t been listening for a while as he tried to remember his interactions with Arya on the past few days. Something was off, he knew that much but couldn’t understand it.

He looked up again and saw her laughing with stupid Ned Dayne and now he could actually feel himself scowl at them. He had no reason to be frowning at them except, he hadn’t seen that smile directed at him in weeks. Yet, that wasn’t quite accurate in reality. In the few interactions he could recall Arya still smiled, It just didn’t reach her eyes anymore. He was incapable of seeing any trace of emotion shine through her grey eyes. Instead, he could only see a wall as if she was wearing a mask, a mask she’d put only for him.

She didn't want him to read her.

It confused him.

It bothered him.

Arya used to be so open. Now she was a mystery. And he wanted, needed, nothing more than to solve it. To solve her.

He wasn’t really used to work to read people, because mostly he didn’t care about people at all. The only person he truly liked was Arya, HotPie and Lommy at times and his half siblings when they remembered to be related with the exception of Barra, he really likes his littlest sister.

Still, he believed he could pick up on things without much difficult and that not caring was more of a personal choice. He had been wrong, so utterly wrong. 

So now he didn’t know what to do because he wasn’t used to work so hard to understand people, to understand someone, to understand her. But in a mere couple of weeks she had changed all that and left him without a ground to stand on.

He hated it.

He hated it for a reason.

He missed her, he missed Arya.

She was right there, in the same room as him yet it felt as if the whole narrow sea was separating them.

He missed the closeness they shared. Perhaps that was different. While she was still there, while she talked to him or greeted him, interacted with him it was distant, like how she regarded and treated any other person.

She barely payed any attention to him now.

He hadn’t realized Arya payed more attention to him than to anyone else. He hadn’t even realized how much he had enjoyed the extra attention before because he hadn’t even realized he _was_ getting extra attention, special treatment, before.

Not until she yanked it out from under him without any warning whatsoever.

Maybe that’s why she called him stupid, he felt as such for never noticing something as important as how different she treated him, how she regarded him as someone more important than the rest. 

He didn’t want to go on like this.

Not specially as he watched Arya talk so animatedly with Ned Dayne.

He was scowling, he could tell it himself and he hadn’t listened to anything HotPie had been saying for the past twenty minutes.

He couldn’t go on like this, he needed answers and the only person who held them was avoiding him. Something needed to be done and something needed to change. He had to take action somehow and find out what had made her pull away from him.

He set his gaze on her and he could tell, his eyes were screaming at her to look at him and when their eyes met, just before she left the place in company of someone who wasn’t him, all he could see was an endless pool of grey silver that he was incapable of reading. He was going to find out what had happened for her to treat him different and he let his eyes speak for him as she looked at him before crossing the door.

He was going to get to the bottom of this, one way or another and he’d do soon.

Arya’s change of attitude was the mystery he was going to solve, no matter what it takes.

He wanted her back, simple as that.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!
> 
> This was brewing in my mind during my sick days. If you follow me on Tumblr you might now me and my family got sick with Covid19.  
> I'm still dealing with the aftermath of it, difficulty while breathing, headaches, muscle aches and brain fog. It is horrible and hard. I'm still on medication to reduce damage to my lungs and might have to use an inhaler permanently. My dad suffered heavy damaged to his lungs and we are dealing with it.
> 
> I want to thank you all who contributed and donated something trough  
> [PayPal](https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/MacarenaOC?locale.x=es_XC/), it meant the world, you have no idea. We still have extensive medical bills to cover, but we managed to survived that bitch of a virus and we're lucky and grateful for that. 
> 
> Thank you very much for your donations and words of encouragement. You mean the world to me. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy this. Leave your opinions of you like.


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